Page 26 of Primal

My boldness must set him off because he pulls me up and crashes his lips into mine, taking what he wants. I moan into his mouth as his tongue swipes over mine deliciously, the faint taste of whiskey making me dizzy.

“You still haven’t given me my perfume back,” I breathe. What an awkward time to be mentioning something like that…

Zyran chuckles and nips at my bottom lip playfully. “You’re not getting it back, baby.”

Before I have a chance to argue, Zyran puts a finger to my lips and shushes me.

Then he does something I wasn’t expecting—he takes the mask off, revealing the beautiful face underneath it.

Oh. My. GOD.

He’s even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

His short, night-black hair and eyebrows are a stark contrast to the deep hue of his indigo eyes and his lightly tanned skin. The perfect planes and angles of his chiseled face are sculpture-like, and for a moment, I feel like I’m looking at a piece of art.

Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe him—he’s breathtaking, even with all the blood on his face.

I don’t realize my mouth is still hanging wide open until he pushes on my chin with a chuckle. “So, I take it you’re not disappointed with what you see?”

“Of course not,” I say quickly, reaching up to run a hand through those silken strands. He closes his eyes and leans into my touch, a low rumble coming from somewhere deep inside his chest.

We stand there for a moment, him nuzzling my hand and me drinking in every part of him, until he breaks the silence.

“What happens now?” he asks quietly.

I chew on my bottom lip nervously.

That’s a really good question.

“This is hard for me,” I start.

His brows furrow in confusion. “Why?”

I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around what the fuck the two of us are even doing.”

He looks at me and waits patiently for me to continue, because there’s definitely something else I have to say.

“And…”

“Spit it out, Kiara,” he says roughly, moving my hand from his face but still holding onto it tightly.

“I still can’t forgive you for my grandma dying,” I whisper, coming back to reality.

The bathroom is now filled with steam, and sweat beads on my forehead. Zyran drops my hand and, without a word, leaves the bathroom and slips back into the shadows of the living room.

I try to pretend I didn’t notice the hurt in his eyes.

CHAPTER 20

ZYRAN

“Where the hell have you been, Zyran?” Gavin hisses at me as I come around to the back of our next target’s house.

Ever since I met Kiara, the desire to break into other people’s homes just hasn’t been there. No matter how much I psych myself up to do it, stealing from strangers just doesn’t give me the same pleasure that stealing from her does.

I mean, it still gets me hard, but I find myself longing for the cat-and-mouse game with my butterfly.

The only reason I keep doing it is for Gavin; we made a deal that we’d only do this together, and I’m nothing if not loyal to my friends.

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